Getting Wireless WPA Encrypted Internet Access with Knoppix 5.1.1 Live CD

Knoppix is a Linux live cd that I use almost daily for testing, tweaking and fixing Windows. This is a tip on how to use the live cd to connect to your WPA encrypted access point. To get Knoppix you can go to this site to get it.

This is how to get WPA wifi working on Knoppix 5.1.1

1. Boot Knoppix

2. Click on the K menu-Internet-Kwlan Wireless Lan Manager.

3. Kwlan may find your wireless device. (My case I have an Atheros wifi adapter so Knoppix finds ath0). Click continue.

4. Kwlan will ask if you want to start wpa_supplicant, click yes.

5. Next Kwlan will ask which driver you should use. (In my case I need to use the madwifi drivers). Most people will use the "wext" drivers. Click start.

6. Kwlan will ask for some settings and then will display an error stating that it could not start wpa_supplicant. Click OK to close the message. Click OK to close the settings dialog.

7. On the panel next to the clock, you will have 3 Kwlan icons. The second icon will resemble a black dot with 3 waves above it and it will also have a red X next to it. Right-click on that icon. On the context menu click "Enable". You should now see your wifi adapter enabled. (In my case I will see "ath0 connected"). The black dot will now be two blue dots. Right-click on that icon (the two blue dots) and on the context menu select WPA-Start WPA Supplicant.

8. The driver selection dialog shows up. Make sure your driver is still selected. Click Start.

9. You will receive a dialog stating that Kwlan could not find WPA_Supplicant configuration. Click OK.

10. Right click the blue dots again and choose Profiles-Edit profiles.

11. In the profiles dialog click "New".

12. Type your profile name or SSID and choose WPA Personal (PSK)

13. Click on the Konsole icon on the panel.

14. Type "su - "

15. At the root prompt type wpa_passphrase [your ssid] [passphrase]

16. Type your psk in the networkConfig WPA section in the NetworkConfig dialog box. (You may be able to select the key on your Konsole window, copy & paste it in the configuration dialog).

17. Click "Add" at the bottom of the NetworkConfig dialog.

18. Your profile should be setup.

19. Go back to Konsole and type "pump -i [your wireless interface]. (In my case I would type "pump -i ath0").

20. Hover your mouse over the blue dots to see if you now have an ip address.